With rapid changes in technology and a growing population, non-clinical health professionals, including health managers, digital health specialists, and policy experts are in demand. York’s Health Studies program prepares students for careers in these rewarding fields while emphasizing an approach to health that focuses on broader societal issues.

Program of Study

Health Studies
Honours Bachelor of Health Studies (BHS)

In addition to taking courses in management, digital health, and policy, students study the breadth and depth of health and health care through a wide variety of issues and social contexts (e.g. social status and disability, homelessness), including case studies in health care in the community. Societal factors that determine why some people stay healthy and others become ill are also examined such as income, stress, early life, social exclusion, work conditions, unemployment, social support, mental health, addiction, food and transportation. Health Studies offers students the flexibility to attain a double major or do a minor in other Faculty of Health or York programs. The program also provides students with the flexibility to take additional prerequisites for postgraduate study in a professional program (e.g. medicine, law) or graduate school.

Courses

All students, whether in the Specialized Honours option (Policy, Management & Digital Health) or the Honours Bachelor of Health Studies option, take the same core courses, including:

• Foundations of Health Studies
• Health Management I
• Health Policy: Power & Politics
• Health Care Law
• Social Determinants of Health
• Health Informatics I
• Health Care Ethics
• Applied Research Approaches in Health Studies
• Statistical Methods in Health Studies

Possible Career Paths:

• Health Care Analyst
• Health Systems Planner
• Health Manager (finance, HR, systems)
• Project Manager
• Clinic Administrator
• Health Policy Researcher
• Data Analyst
• Health Finance Analyst
• Health Information Specialist
• Systems Integration Specialist
• Software Developer
• Health Human Resources Specialist
• Health Policy Advisor/Analyst
• Community Health Worker
• Health Care Consultant
• Health Writer/Communications Professional
• Physician (with further postgraduate training)
• Lawyer (with further postgraduate training)

You may also be interested in Health Policy, Management & Digital Health or Global Health.